Jenny Lower – LA Weekly Though sexual assault is never not timely, it’s been getting an extra-special dose of attention due to Bill Cosby and his 50-and-counting accusers, as well as the scrutiny directed at colleges before and after the discredited Rolling Stone account of campus assault and news generated by a White House rape-prevention initiative. Read more… … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Traumas from our childhood frequently haunt us for the rest of our lives. In her uneven family melodrama, writer/director Kimberly Demmary writes about three half-sisters, scarred by the cruel and random behavior of their manipulative mother. Read more… Now running through Sept. 19.
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw There are several hearty laughs to be had as the credits roll on Peter Lefcourt’s clichéd comedy, which is set in a West L.A. Starbucks where a homegrown terrorist is holding people hostage. Read more… Margaret Gray – LA Times One unintended consequence of the communications age is the increased difficulty … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly August Wilson’s plays are as much about the historical experience of African-Americans as they are about any one of his characters. This is certainly true of Fences, which begins in 1957, a year marked by federal troops on the ground in Arkansas and the forced desegregation of Little Rock Central High … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Country Music Hall of Famer Patsy Cline was celebrated not only for her melodic voice and versatile repertoire but for her warmth, humility and readiness to promote the careers of others, especially women. Read more… Now running through September 27.
Jenny Lower – LA Weekly In All American Girl, a world premiere from InterACT Theatre Company, radical Islam doesn’t take hold of its main character’s life all at once. For Katie, or Karima, as she comes to be known, Islam follows a conservative Christian upbringing, volunteer work in Boston’s slum-poor Dorchester neighborhood, and a stint at … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly We haven’t been treated fairly, and everybody knows it, says actress Maria Gobetti. She’s objecting to the union’s elimination of L.A.’s 99-Seat Theater Plan, which, for the uninitiated, was in effect for a quarter century and permitted union actors to work in theaters of up to 99-seats in L.A. … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Arts In LA Bent, playwright Martin Sherman’s revelatory 1979 play about the gay experience in Nazi concentration camps, receives an arresting production at the Mark Taper Forum. Moisés Kaufman’s direction and his stellar cast will leave audiences breathless. Read more… Jenny Lower – LA Weekly It’s difficult and rare to come across stories … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net Prolific Chicago-based playwright, Phillip Dawkins, is back. When his riveting ensemble drama “The Homosexuals” was presented at L.A.’ s Celebration Theater in 2013, it certainly whetted one’s appetite to view more of his work. In a staging by L.A.’s Coeurage Theatre Company, Dawkins’ zany seriocomic reverie, “Failure: A Love … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw If you’re anything like me, you’ll go into Mike Kindle’s one-act drama knowing nothing about the mother of Barack Obama, but come out with a healthy respect for the progressive woman who, virtually single-handedly, raised the man who became the President of the United States. Read more… Deborah Klugman – LA … Read more